Final Fantasy: New Blood
by Neon-Ronin
Summary: Followup to A New Threat To Spira. A chronicle of a new generation making their own way in the world their parents helped preserve. R&R please this story is, sadly, discontinued.
1. A Journal Entry

[A/N: This story is a follow-up/sequel to my previous fanfic, A New Threat To Spira. To save on confusion, I suggest you read that story first. I don't own Final Fantasy or its established characters- but then you knew this already.]  
  
Final Fantasy: New Blood  
  
Chapter 1: A Journal Entry  
  
_First of Spring, Year 22 of Eternal Calm  
  
It never fails. Everyone eventually gets around to asking me or sis the same questions. "What's it like growing up as the child of celebrities?" or "Is it hard to live up to their standard?" Close family and friends aside, just about anyone will invariably ask us that, or a variant thereof. Usually when we're trying to hang back and just chill. It wasn't much of a surprise when people began asking those sort of questions, but you'd think they would learn to just leave well enough alone and let us live out our lives, rather than speculating on whether we're going to be the next generation of heroes. They have this preset notion in their head of what our family is like, and that leads them to wonder these things. Do we resent the attention our parents get. What their expectations are of us. What it's like to be children of living legends.  
  
My name is Krys, son of Lady Yuna and Sir Tidus, and there's something a lot of people don't realize. To me and my twin sister Elsa, their achievements are secondary. It's who they are at heart that matters.  
  
Don't get me wrong, we both know Mom and Dad have done some amazing things in their time. Phenomenal things, actually. But the thing that really ticks me off is the notion some people have that they set out to become these great heroes, the Saviors of Spira as it were. People don't seem to realize that they didn't do what they did for money, fame or glory. That was never part of the equation any of the times they faced ridiculous odds, not with Sin, not with Vegnagun, not even with Malar the Immortal. They did what they did because it was the right thing to do, and in some instances didn't even know they were averting an apocalypse until it was upon them. Take Sin, for instance. Yes, Mom was the one Summoner who defeated that threat permanently and brought about the Eternal Calm, but she never really intended to accomplish that which so many others had tried and failed. Hell, she didn't even expect to come out of that ordeal alive. She was doing what she felt was right, something that would bring peace back to Spira even if it was only for a little while. And nowadays I walk through the streets of Luca and hear stories of "the High Summoner's Epic Battle" romanticizing aspects of Mom's pilgrimage, and not bothering to mention the fact that the Church of Yevon had branded her as a heretic for uncovering their secrets. All they talk about was how she had set out to destroy Sin once and for all, by uniting the people of Spira and using the power of their faith to bring down the beast. They don't bother checking the Sphere libraries and learning what really happened. The fact is, if it wasn't for Dad, a lot of things would've been different- for one thing, I wouldn't be sitting here writing these words in my journal, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  
  
That's where it really all began; when Dad showed up in Spira all those years ago, everything started to change. Now I've heard all the details on what happened and where he came from, and I've never really tried to understand the logistics of the "dream" Zanarkand that was his birthplace. That's not important. What is important is the fact that he was here at the right time. He wasn't a glory seeker or a world saver when he was my age- well, maybe if Blitzball was involved, then he might have gone for the glory- but on the Pilgrimage all those years ago, he didn't know what it was he was getting into. He was just a regular guy trying to find out what had happened. He had no idea what was going on when he first washed up on Besaid, and he still didn't know much when he first saw Mom emerge from the Chamber of the Fayth deep inside the temple. That was the moment, they've told us, where everything began to fall into place for them both; it may not have been 'love at first sight', but it was something. An infatuation at least. From what Dad tells us, he was mystified and intrigued by the figure that emerged, exhausted, from the Chamber. He wanted to know more about her, but wasn't sure she'd even throw a glance in his direction. The way Mom tells it, she had just gotten her bearings back and saw this mysterious blond-haired stranger standing with the people she'd grown up with- and she felt an urge to find out "why his azure eyes made her heart skip a beat". At least, that's how she described it.  
  
Apparently they didn't have a whole lot in common at first- Dad was full of energy, and still is to this day, while Mom was more demure. I think it was a combination of knowing the fate of Summoners and growing up in a more or less cloistered environment. She was going away from Besaid, the only real home she'd known most of her life, and was heading across Spira for the first time- and in her mind, the last time. Sometimes I wonder what it would've been like had Dad not shown up at that moment; for one thing, she probably wouldn't have had some of the fun times they've told us about. It still cracks me and Ellie up to think about the two of them laughing on the bridge overlooking Luca, with people walking by thinking they'd lost their marbles. And of course, if he hadn't shown up, and if he and the others hadn't fought to find another way to do things, Mom could've wound up married to an unsent half-Guado whose heart was bent on wrecking Spira beyond repair. Then not only would Mom be dead, but everyone else would be as well. See, these are the things people tend to forget as time goes by, they forget the bad aspects of the Pilgrimage and focus on the end result. That's how the theories began to arise that Mom had planned the whole thing out, that she meant to uncover all the falsehoods behind Yevon and defeat Sin forever. It was never planned, and it might not have happened if Dad hadn't given her the courage to stand up to something wrong.  
  
I could go on about the other incidents, how they more or less stumbled into the position of saving the world again, but I'd probably wind up repeating myself. The point I'm trying to make is that people tend to ignore what was happening behind the scenes; during the Vegnagun incident, nobody except Mom's closest friends knew the pain she'd lived with ever since Dad disappeared with the destruction of Sin. They still don't talk about those two years they were apart very much; I think it's a subject neither one of them wants to remember. But they do talk about the journey that brought them back together a lot. Something about being so determined to find each other that the Fayth had no choice but to let Dad go free. Now to me that sounds a bit sappy, but the facts do speak for themselves.  
  
After the third 'save-the-world' incident where they fought Malar the Immortal, Mom and Dad came back to Besaid and decided to make their home there. Course, that didn't mean they'd stay there full time; I've learned myself it can get old if you don't take a trip to the rest of Spira once in a while. But that's where our home is, and it's where me and Ellie were born in the fourth year of the Eternal Calm. Our house is right down by the beach; practically the whole village chipped in to help build it. It's got sort of a Kilika waterfront hut feel to it, cozy and spacious at the same time. It sits right in this little inlet below the ancient ruins, with a deck that rests right over the water; being that close to the ocean meant me and Ellie learned to swim almost faster than we learned to walk. A lot of people figured the legendary High Summoner would live in something more grandiose, right? Something akin to one of the temples, or the Bevelle palace, maybe? Perhaps somebody like ex-Chancellor Nooj's wife LeBlanc would like that, but not Mom. Even Dad prefers Besaid to the hustle of the city these days; I guess that's something about Mom that rubbed off on him. And in all honesty, Besaid is a great place to be a kid. I know it was for me and sis.  
  
I'm not sure how ready Dad was for the arrival of twins, mind you. When he first learned Mom was pregnant, he was thrilled, naturally- but he was also more than a little scared. I think he was afraid he'd wind up making the sort of mistakes his father did. I don't know much about what Jecht put him through aside from what Dad's told us, or what we've learned from the few Spheres of him on Braska's Pilgrimage, but whatever it was, it sure haunted Dad for a while. Then when the big day came around and they discovered they didn't have just a son or daughter, but one of each... Mom says they were both thunderstruck and overjoyed at the same time. I know our Aunt Rikku was certainly ecstatic; we've still got some Spheres that she recorded the day after me and Ellie were born, and she was all over the place with that enormous grin on her face.  
  
As for what it's like being a child of two of the most famous people in Spira? Well, I'd say it isn't all that different from growing up in any other family, except people ask us stupid questions more often. That aside, Ellie and I had a fairly normal childhood. It might have been different if our parents really were glory-seekers, like some people seem to think. They don't really notice how awkward Mom gets when she becomes the center of attention; she says she's been that way all her life, and usually passes it off with a smile. It certainly would've been different if we'd grown up in some place like Bevelle, where it feels like every other person you meet on the street is a snob or a poser. Fact is, if you didn't know who Mom and Dad were and you met them for the first time, you'd probably think they were just a very nice, very happily married couple. And you'd be right. Okay, maybe once in a great while they do argue about something, but they've never been upset with each other for longer than half a day at most. I guess after all the things they've done and the adventures they've had, little annoyances don't bother them much anymore.  
  
I still don't know what to make of it when people ask me or Ellie about our plans for the future. When someone asks what our parents' expectations are of us, it never fails to annoy me. I guess some people think it's predetermined what we're going to do with our lives; hey, just because we learn how to do something doesn't mean we're supposed to follow it as a career choice the rest of our lives. And we've learned a lot of things. Dad taught us how to play Blitzball, Mom taught us the basics of the healing arts and how to sing, and they both taught us how to swim and how to fight. We didn't necessarily learn those because they wanted us to, they taught us because we asked them. I remember the way Dad would laugh and toss the ball around with us, always coaxing a little more energy out of us when we thought we had none left. And when we flubbed a shot or a pass, he'd just tell us 'practice makes perfect' and encourage us to keep trying. I guess that's something he wishes his dad had done for him. I don't know if I'll ever be as good as Dad was at the peak of his career- and I've seen him in action, we've been going to his games ever since we were toddlers- but he says we've got a real knack for the game, me and Ellie both.  
  
Dad would probably love it if we joined the Aurochs, even though he's never said anything about it. I've thought it over, but still haven't decided yet. Some people speculate we might become Sphere Hunters or Fiend Exterminators, the way Mom did after she defeated Sin. It's a tempting thought, to say the least. Others think we might be the next generation of heroes- which is assuming a lot, considering what I've already mentioned about them just doing the right thing at the right time. If it comes to that, then we'll just have to deal with it when it happens, but as it is, right now all me and Ellie need to do is a little exploring of our own. We've been on a few trips with Mom and Dad, but never anything solo. We talked it over with them, and they weren't too enthusiastic at first- typical parental concern. But that didn't last long, and they gave us what advice they could before we began our journey.  
  
Do we resent the attention our parents get? Of course not. What do they expect of us? All they've said they want is for us to find our own way, to be safe, and to be happy in what we do. Can we live up to their standard? If by that you mean their standard of being decent people, I think so. If you mean from a heroic standpoint...  
  
Well, we'll just have to find that out.  
  
It's time to start writing our story._


	2. Friends and Teammates

[A/N: Looks like my schedule is going to be pretty jammed for a while, so updates may take time. I don't own anything by the Square Enix crowd. And now...]  
  
Chapter 2: Friends and Teammates  
  
Night was falling on the well-worn bridges and plains of the Mi'ihen Highroad. The early spring air was brisk and heady with the smell of the first flowers. Several Chocobos, tired out from a long day's work, were bedding down in their paddock by the Travel Agency which was also closing up for the night. Just across from the Agency near the cliff overlooking the ocean, faint light shone from the windows of several small hotel cabins which had been built no more than three years before. Each cabin was fully booked despite the fact it was still early in the year for tourism. Gradually the lights went out and few sounds could be heard save the lone howl of a Lupine in the distance or the occasional chirp of a cricket. A lone Hover attendant sat on a bench outside the Agency, relaxing from a long day's work as he took a swig from a small flask and let out a long sigh. His eyes danced here and there, taking in the familiar sights around him as well as the shadowy form of the steel-gray airship docked near the cabins. "Never woulda thought I'd see those all over Spira in my lifetime," he chuckled to himself, and was about to take another swig when a sudden noise from the North made his ears perk up.  
  
The attendant stood up a bit shakily and tried to steady himself as he glanced up the road. The sounds were getting louder, and definitely did not belong to a wagon or a machina. His suspicions were confirmed as a young female voice cried out, "Help!!" Seconds later a brown-haired girl, barely nine years old, came half-running, half-limping into the Travel Agency clearing. Her dress was torn at the sleeve and the hem and she was missing one shoe; her face was covered in dirt and tears. The Agency doors flew open and several cabin lights came on as the manager emerged and gathered the trembling child into her arms. One cabin door opened just as the girl began to babble frantically through her tears.  
  
"Our wagon's been tipped over and there's fiends all over the place and my mommy's trapped under the wagon and I can't get to her! Somebody help, please!!" she wailed through choking sobs.  
  
"Don't worry, sweetie, we'll get your mom out of there," the manager said in a soft voice. Picking the girl up, she turned to the attendant. "Those sentry machina should've been on full alert right now; I thought you told me you'd fixed them!!"  
  
"Ma'am, I did fix the North road machina, don't try and pin this on me!" the attendant retorted, straightening up and tossing the liquor flask into a nearby bush.  
  
"I didn't say that I was, but we can sort that mess out later. Right now we've got a fiend crisis and we sure as hell better not be short on anything else!" the manager replied. "Are there any Council patrols nearby, because we're going to need their help!"  
  
"Er... there was a patrol earlier in the day, ma'am, but they headed back down to Luca. That's as near as we're gonna get."  
  
"Oh, wonderful! That'll take far too long!" the manager groaned. "Forget it, grab a sword or whatever you can and I'll get some of the other attendants to help out!"  
  
"Don't worry about a thing, ma'am," a male voice called out from the direction of the cabins. The attendant and manager both turned to see a young man approaching them rapidly. In the twilight it was hard to make out his features, but the sword strapped across his back indicated he was no stranger to a fight. Behind him, four other figures were seen exiting the cabin he had emerged from.  
  
"Leave this mess up to the Night Hawks."

* * *

Several dozen Lupines circled menacingly around the overturned wagon that lay in the middle of the Highroad. Some paced back and forth leisurely, others snapped and barked at the wagon as saliva dripped from their maws in rivers. A matronly woman crouched beneath the wreckage, wide- eyed and nervously brandishing a kitchen knife as if it would scare away the toughest of fiends. Her eyes darted left and right, praying desperately that the patrol machina would close in and drive off the pack, but from her vantage point she could only see one scout machina in the vicinity, and it looked to be in a state of extreme disrepair. Cautiously she leaned forward to try and get a better view, but leaped back twice as fast as two Lupines charged her ramshackle shelter, their teeth and claws gouging great furrows into the wagon's sides. The woman cried out in despair and tears began to roll down her cheeks, when suddenly a series of gunshots echoed across the Highroad, followed by two mangled squeals and thuds.  
  
The baying of the Lupines ceased as they spun around and faced due South. Two of their number had fallen and were already spewing forth pyreflies from the gaping holes in their sides. Beyond them, a young man barely eighteen years old stood tall and defiant, brandishing two massive silver pistols at the pack. He wore black slacks and sneakers and a white t-shirt with the words _**Pay to Play**_ etched across the chest, and a loose yellow jacket with silver lapels and bronze strips of metal riveted along the shoulders and the left sleeve forearm. A similar bronze shin guard on his left leg, brown leather holsters, black fingerless gloves and a silver J-shaped pendant on his chest completed the outfit. The lupines stared at the new arrival with eyes marked with curiosity and hunger. The man twirled the guns on his fingers and slammed them back into their holsters, a playful light glinting in his vivid blue eyes. He brushed his tousled brownish-blond hair and grabbed the hilt of the sword across his back. "Time to take a nap, you freaks," he muttered before lunging forward with blinding speed. Several Lupines charged him in unison; one burst forward and tried to snap at his face, but he jammed his sword into the fiend's mouth and spun around, tearing its jaw to shreds and slamming the blade into its comrade's flank at the same time. The second Lupine snarled and reared up on its hind legs, jabbing its forelimbs into his shirt and scoring wicked gashes across his flesh. Gritting his teeth, he kicked out and pushed the fiend off, executing a backward roll across the ground and sheathing his sword at the same time. Drawing his guns again, he began to unleash a hailstorm of leaden death before the fiends could even react.  
  
_Sword swinger and gunslinger- that's me, all right. Spitting image of my old man, or so I've been told. I can quick draw a blade or a pistol faster than just about anyone on Besaid; learned my lessons running the Gunner's Gauntlet three times weekly. Kinda shocked Mom when she found out I wanted to learn how to be a fighter, though. Probably just maternal instincts or something- with fiends out there, me and Ellie kinda figured we had to learn how to defend ourselves. Mom did eventually give in and she and Dad taught us what they could, but I don't think she ever really got comfortable with the idea of us fighting fiends. I guess she's afraid of losing either one of us. Even so, they taught us well, and without using Dresspheres or a Garment Grid either._  
  
More Lupines began to fall into rank as the initial shock wore off. Several more lay on the ground dissipating into nothingness as Krys ejected two spent clips from his guns, slamming in fresh ones faster than the eye could see. With a quick shift he began to dash to the right, firing off more rounds as the fiends drew closer and lunged towards him once more. Krys darted and rolled, evading two sets of fangs before jamming a gun down the throat of a third and pulling the trigger. Just then several claws raked across his back as three more fiends encircled him, forcing him to holster his sidearms and draw his sword again. "Tryin' to play rough, huh?" he sneered. "Well that's how I like it, you crazy mutts."  
  
A sudden flash of steel in the moonlight caused three of the fiends' eyes to go wide seconds before they each collapsed and burst into whiffs of color. Krys blinked and smiled. "Took you long enough," he said in a jesting tone. A slim young woman now stood where the fiends had been, clad in knee-length tight jean shorts and a navy blue denim vest over a white low cut short-sleeved shirt. Dark blue boots and studded kneepads adorned her legs, a maroon sash hung loosely around her waist and yellow bracers covered her wrists and the backs of her hands. Her own blue eyes twinkled in the moonlight as she hefted a peculiar sort of weapon- a tough metal staff with a large aquamarine orb set in a decorative mount on one end, offset by the ferocious-looking sword blade that dominated the other end and seemed almost as big as the girl herself. "I just wanted to make sure you really needed our help," she said in a lilting tone as she began to twirl the polearm in rapid circles. With a quick hop, the girl propelled herself into the air, leaping directly into the midst of the Lupine pack and thrashing the bladed end of the staff into the fiends in a dance that was as deadly as it was beautiful.  
  
_That's my sister Elsa for you, just as rough-and-tumble as I am. She's gotten a lot of grief over the years about her tomboy attitude, but she doesn't care. Looks just like Mom did when she was her age, except that Ellie can't bring herself to wear her hair in a braid like Mom. She says it would get in the way of her fighting style, which is something she calls Bladedancing. You wouldn't think it to look at her, but she can crack the shell of an Armet with one swing of that glaive of hers; she had it made from one of Mom's old summoner staves. Lightweight and powerful, and oddly enough she can still use the other end to channel some minor white magic spells. That's what makes her style so unique, the way she can switch from warrior to healer in the blink of an eye._  
  
The pack began to shrink in size, but not in ferocity as the twins gouged, slashed and kicked their way through the Lupines' front ranks. Several tried to tear Elsa's legs to shreds but only succeeded in carving up one of her boots before she spun around and decapitated them with one swing of her glaive. Krys shattered the rib cage of another fiend with a vicious backhand swipe of his sword, spun around and drove his knee into the lower jaw of one that was leaping towards him from behind. Just then two more figures darted forward into the fray; one was tall and powerfully built, with red hair held back by a white bandanna. He wore black denim pants and shoes, crimson-tinted steel shin guards, a black leather jacket over a red t-shirt and metal-studded fingerless gloves. The other was shorter with spiked blond hair and green eyes, clad in beige pants and a red cargo vest over an orange short-sleeved shirt. Buckled desert boots and a pair of Al Bhed goggles on his forehead completed the outfit, and on both wrists he wore a bizarre set of chromed machina bracers with two blades protruding over each hand. "Hey, better save some o' the fun for us, ya?" the taller man called out as he ducked in low and drove his knuckles into the face of the closest Lupine. The creature shuddered, then collapsed as the man spun and roundhouse-kicked it into two of its pack mates. The smaller blond man grinned and darted into the mess with unexpected speed and agility, jabbing his bladed bracers into anything he came across.  
  
"Some workout, isn't it Red?" Elsa hollered with a grin on her face as she spun in an elegant pirouette, driving her glaive into three hapless fiends at once.  
  
"Jus' like a jog through the forest back home!" the tall redhead laughed, grabbing one Lupine by the throat and swinging it into an impromptu suplex that sent it crashing into another fiend.  
  
"Or a romp or two across Bikanel during the dry season," the blond man chuckled, yanking a concussion grenade out of his belt satchel and hocking it over the wagon. The bomb exploded a fraction of a second later, tossing three Lupines into the air where they promptly disintegrated into pyreflies.  
  
"Derrik, it's always the dry season on Bikanel!" Krys said, grappling with one Lupine that was attempting to claw at his jugular.  
  
"Well, you can't say it's not a great place to get a tan!" Derrik retorted with a smirk. Krys shrugged and nodded in agreement just as he broke the grapple and punched the offending fiend in the face. It staggered back a few paces only to get caught in a cross slam from Derrik's claw bracers and Elsa's glaive.  
  
_The one we call Red, that's Vidina- me and Ellie's best friend while we were growing up. His father and ours have been friends for years, ever since Dad first came to Besaid. Red's a powerhouse, not an ounce of fat on him. Great Blitzer, and an even better martial artist. I swear the guy's got knuckles made of Adamantoise shell, and more than a few dirty tricks to blind or stun a fiend so he can get in a few more punches. The blond kid named Derrik, he's our younger cousin of sorts, the son of Mom's cousin Rikku- but we never bothered with semantics, we just called her Aunt Rikku and Cousin Derrik when we were little, so the titles stuck. Derrik's a real firecracker, and probably has the nimblest hands in our little group. He can swipe a soldier's rifle from right under his nose, field strip it, upgrade it and put it back before the soldier notices it was gone.  
_  
"Is it just me or is this taking a little too long?" Elsa shouted, sustaining several gashes across her upper arms as two Lupines attempted to bull rush her off the roadway. Ducking in, she flipped her staff around and drove the orb-tipped end into one fiend's mouth, breaking half of its teeth, then spun in a circle and cut both down at once.  
  
"It's not just you Ellie, this is one big pack o' fiends, ya?" Vidina responded, grabbing a charging fiend and wrestling it into a headlock; one quick twist and the canine collapsed, its neck broken.  
  
"Then let's do something about it," said a soft yet firm female voice. A ruddy orange glow began to throb at the edge of the pack, a glow that emanated from the tip of a simple staff made of white oak. Grasping the staff was a young woman dressed in a loose long-sleeved white shirt and pants, black low-heeled boots that came to just above her knees and a long pale green vest etched with runic symbols. A gust of wind whipped her long silver-white hair about her face as she thrust the staff forward. Her dark red eyes glinted as the Fire spell manifested and sent scorching waves across the pack of Lupines. "Feel the burn," she whispered softly, watching numerous fiends succumb to the flames and burst into pyreflies. The remaining Lupines struggled to stay on their feet, their maws frothing from the pain of their charred flesh, but these were quickly put out of their misery as Krys unloaded another hail of bullets into each of them.  
  
_Maya's the youngest of us at 16, and something of an enigma to most. She doesn't open up to many people outside of us, her closest friends, and when she does talk to others she's incredibly subdued. Of course, being the daughter of Chancellor Baralai and the Swordswoman Paine can't be the easiest thing in the world. She's been in the public eye involuntarily for ages, but then again so have Ellie and me; I guess she never got a chance to fully adapt to it. In a fashion, I suppose she's kinda the way Mom was years ago, the way she feels more at home with smaller groups of people like us. But cross the line with her and she turns from shy and quiet to a raging fury- having already learned the four basic Elemental techniques, we're all positive Maya could be one of the foremost Combat Mages someday._  
  
Elsa breathed a heavy sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Not exactly your typical evening's entertainment, I'd have to say," she said, glancing around. "Any more coming?"  
  
"Looks like we scared 'em all away, sis," Krys responded, straightening the lapels of his jacket. "C'mon, we better get this wagon straightened out."  
  
"Talk about a freak show! With this many Lupines on the Highroad, you'd think the sentry machina would've been on the scene already!" said Derrik, kneeling down to examine a malfunctioning Ranger model. An access panel was hanging off the back and smoke was seeping from its leg joints.  
  
"Derrik, save your curiosity for later and give us a hand, ya?" Vidina griped as he, Krys, Elsa and Maya grabbed the broken side of the wagon and began to shove upward. The wagon quickly rose off the ground, balanced on its remaining wheels for a few seconds before Derrik darted in underneath and procured two broken wheel sections to prop the chassis up. The woman who had been cowering beneath scrambled out into the open, tried to stand up but couldn't. She tried to steady her legs and get up again when she noticed a gloved hand before her. Looking up, she saw Krys extending his arm with a reassuring smile.  
  
"It's all right, ma'am," he said in a light tone. "We just happened to be in the neighborhood."

* * *

A short time later, the five of them had returned to the Travel Agency with the traveler in tow. The woman's daughter practically flew across the Agency floor into her arms, crying tears of joy and babbling about how scared she had been. The Agency manager breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and the Hover attendant tried to make himself useful organizing the items in the wagon that hadn't been wrecked by the fiends. "I just couldn't believe it," the woman said, hugging the little girl. "We thought the sentry machina were prepared for fiend attacks, which is why we didn't worry about arriving after sundown. But then when they began leaping out of the shadows and the ox broke the reins and tried to run..." She shuddered and pulled her daughter closer. "I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't arrived when you did. Thank the Maker."  
  
"Hey, we was jus' doing our part, ma'am. Can't let fiends get the upper hand, you know?" said Vidina as he loosened one of the straps on his jacket sleeve.  
  
"I want to apologize for everything, ma'am," the Agency manager piped up as she approached. "I've been telling the staff time and again the sentries need regular maintenance; in a way this mess is really our fault. If there's anything we can do to make it up to you, just let me know."  
  
"Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like to take a look at those models in the morning. Maybe I can find out why they malfunctioned," said Derrik with a smile.  
  
"Yeah, I think we'd all like to know that; it's not like fiends to gang up on the Highroad like this," added Krys.  
  
The manager blinked. "You'd be willing to help us with that?"  
  
"Why not? Might be kinda fun!" said Elsa as she slid a leather sheath over the massive cutting edge of her glaive and strapped it in place.  
  
"It'd be a pleasure," Maya murmured, glancing up at the Agency staff awkwardly.  
  
_Maybe there really is something to be said for being in the right place at the right time. We'd only just agreed to hit the road and find adventure, and it practically came running up to meet us. That night, the Night Hawks were born- just a crazy name I thought up on the fly. It only dawned on me later that we were beginning to follow in our parents' footsteps already. Whether we're going to be actual "heroes" is something I don't know, but one thing is certain...  
  
It's going to be a lot of fun finding out._


	3. Breakfast

[A/N: Thank you for the reviews; I apologize for the time it takes between updates. I don't own the setting or the original characters, or anything else for that matter. Please note- any Al Bhed will be translated in brackets for the convenience of those who don't speak it.]  
  
Chapter 3: Breakfast  
  
The following morning was quiet and tranquil as the sun rose into a cloudless sky. The Chocobos stirred and ruffled their feathers as the sunlight played across their paddock, and several Agency attendants began their early morning rounds, blinking and yawning as they did so. Shadows fell away from the airship which sat docked near the Agency like a beached whale, its contours reminiscent of the airship Celsius but with several distinct differences. Its hover turbines were set midway along its length within concealed wing mounts, rather than at the front and back of the ship. The wings protruded just enough away from the main body of the ship to give it an aerodynamic appearance, and the entire structure was painted matte steel gray with the name _**Excalibur II**_ emblazoned on the side.  
  
In the cabin nearest to the ship, several of its occupants were beginning to stir- one more so than the others.  
  
"C'mon you sleepyheads, up and at 'em!" said Vidina as he hopped out of bed in his red shirt and boxer shorts and began to stretch. He was greeted by a chorus of irritated groans, two of which came from the other side of a privacy screen that divided the cabin. "Can't just lie in bed all morning, ya?"  
  
"Oh, buzz off, Red," Maya grumbled, pulling the sheets over her head.  
  
"Do you have to do all that at the crack of dawn?" Krys yawned, sitting up in his bunk and rubbing his face.  
  
"No, he just does it to annoy us," came Elsa's voice from the other side of the screen. "Red, if you'd kindly keep down the noise I might reconsider coming over there and using your back as a trampoline."  
  
"Geez, why so grumpy in the morning?" said Vidina as he began doing push-ups. "I hit the sack the same time as you guys last night, an' I feel great!"  
  
"You would if you'd had a good night's sleep and didn't have to listen to that racket," Maya's voice wafted over the screen.  
  
"What's that s'posed to mean?"  
  
"It means you snore like a steam engine, Red!" Krys said as he grabbed a towel off the floor and hocked it in Vidina's direction, hitting him in the face with a muffled slap.  
  
"Excuse me?" Vidina replied, getting up and yanking the towel off his face. "You gotta be thinking of somebody in the next cabin over, because I don't snore!"  
  
"How would you know, you always miss out on it because you're asleep!" Elsa shot back; there was a rustling sound and two thuds as she planted her feet on the floor.  
  
"C'mon, even if I do it can't be as bad as all that!"  
  
"No, it isn't as bad as all that, it's even worse," Krys said as he pushed the covers off and shoved out of bed in a gray t-shirt and boxers. "I call dibs on the shower," he added as he stumbled towards the cabin's only bathroom.  
  
"I'm next, bro," said Elsa as she stepped, half asleep, around the privacy screen in a white tank top and matching boxers of her own. She stretched and yawned, blinking a few times before realizing she was standing in front of Vidina in her skivvies, and his eyes had expanded to the size of grapefruits. She rolled her eyes and ducked back around the screen, more irritated than embarrassed. "You can blink now, Red, I didn't do that for your entertainment," she growled from the other side.  
  
"Huh? Oh... oh, sorry Ellie, I just never expected... uh..." He trailed off.  
  
"Men," said Elsa and Maya at the same time. Just then the front door burst open, knocking part of the privacy screen to one side.  
  
"Hey guys, I got a start on the... rumo csuga..." Derrik stood in the doorway with his mouth open, his eyes glued to the girls' side of the cabin.  
  
[Translation: holy smoke...]  
  
"DERRIK!!" Maya shrieked, grabbing her staff. "Get away and keep your eyes to yourself!!!" she shouted as a low-grade Thunder spell arced across the cabin. Derrik yelped and scurried over to his bunk, twitching and clutching his backside in agony.  
  
"YEEOOUCH!! Ow ow ow, E's cunno Maya! I didn't mean it!!"  
  
[I'm sorry Maya]  
  
"Just watch it, buster!" she retorted as the sounds of bathrobes being pulled on came from behind the screen.  
  
"Oh boy, this isn't lookin' good ya? Better try and stay clear of their bad sides today," Vidina whispered.  
  
"You can say that again," Derrik groaned. "She didn't have to try and burn my butt off though..."  
  
"What's all the hoo-ha out there?" Krys hollered from the bathroom.  
  
"It's nothing, bro, Derrik's just being a pain in the ass again," Elsa called back.  
  
"And Maya just GAVE me one!!" Derrik added in an irritated tone. He scowled as the clear sounds of laughter emanated over the sound of running water. "It wasn't funny, cuz!" he whined.  
  
"That's your opinion," was Krys' bemused reply.

* * *

A short while later the five of them had each had their turns in the shower, gotten dressed and were sitting around the cramped cabin table eating. Maya had gotten over her irritation enough to cook up an old favorite of hers, pancakes, and fortunately there were enough to go around. Some fruit from the North end of the Highroad complimented the meal, and for the first minute all anyone did at the table was eat.  
  
"So what exactly gave you the idea for that corny team name, Krys?" asked Elsa with her mouth full.  
  
"What're you talking about, Night Hawks isn't that corny!"  
  
"Bro, it sounds almost as bad as Kinderguardians; remember what Mom used to tell us about them?" At the mention of the now long-defunct group of kiddie Sphere Hunters, Derrik started laughing and almost choked on the pear he was eating.  
  
"Kinderguardians?" he sputtered. "That was a real group? I thought that was just a joke Dad made up!"  
  
"Yeah, well from the way our mom tells it most of the time that group was a joke," Elsa replied with a snicker.  
  
"Look, the only reason I came up with that name was to give us some sort of validity," Krys piped up. "I mean, we'd been talking about doing something like this for the last couple of days, we just hadn't figured out what yet. Now we at least have a starting point to work from, don't you think?"  
  
"I will admit, it did feel good to help those people out," said Maya as she sipped a glass of juice. "But I don't know how comfortable I feel about becoming 'heroes for hire' or something like that."  
  
"I didn't say that's what we had to do," said Krys. "We can do whatever the hell we feel like, and if something comes up that happens to be heroic, then that's just the luck of the draw, right?"  
  
Elsa sighed. "Frankly I wouldn't mind the odd bit of heroics, maybe a bit of fiend clobbering, but I still don't know about that name."  
  
Vidina looked up from stuffing his face. "Well I for one think it's a pretty cool name. Sounds kinda imposing and majestic at the same time, ya?"  
  
"Yeah, me too!" said Derrik as he finished his breakfast. "I was afraid we were gonna wind up calling ourselves the 'New Gullwings,' or even 'Gullwings 2.0' for a while." The second he finished, everyone at the table stared at Derrik for a moment before busting out laughing. Derrik smirked.  
  
"Okay, I guess there could be worse names," Elsa finally said through her chuckles. "So what do we do now, 'Night Hawks'?"  
  
"Well, I've been looking over a few of the machina that failed last night, but I only got a chance to look at one or two so far," said Derrik. "If we spread out, maybe we can get them looked at faster. The Agency manager said she'd even pay us if we get them running again."  
  
"Sounds like an idea to me," said Krys as he rose from the table and straightened the lapels of his jacket. "But let's not get too far apart from each other; we don't want anyone to be a sitting duck if fiends rush us."  
  
"I'm not too good with machina aside from the airship; what are we supposed to be looking for?" Maya asked as she stood up and smoothed out her long green vest.  
  
"Anything that looks out of place- blown access panels, rusted or greasy joints, anything that catches your eye," Derrik replied, already halfway out the door.  
  
"Yeah, what he said," Vidina added, throwing on his leather jacket. "Let's go lookin' for wrecked mechs!"  
  
The next half hour was spent outside as the five of them traipsed slowly down the North Highroad, examining each Scout and Ranger model they came across. Just about every one of them was lolling aimlessly, their arms scraping the ground. Except for metal-on-metal, there were no noises coming from them, no servo whines or engine growls, nothing. Derrik hopped around each model he came to like a flea on a hot griddle, flipping bizarre tools and a scanner from concealed panels on his claw bracers. Vidina would often crouch along next to him, taking in all the sights and not understanding much of anything Derrik said. The other three kept a constant watch on the Highroad at all times, relaxed but alert. Krys' eyes darted across the horizon as he rested a hand on one of his guns.  
  
"This isn't making much sense, guys," Derrik finally said, wiping grime from his forehead as they finished up on one model and proceeded to the next one. "They all look more or less okay- granted they haven't been maintained very well, but the hardware doesn't look so bad that they'd all just die on the spot."  
  
"And even if the circuits were rusted or dirty, what's the chances of all of them failing at the same time?" Elsa asked, balancing her glaive on her right shoulder.  
  
"Ah, who knows what's goin' on in their brains?" piped up Vidina, stretching his arms behind his head. "Maybe they all decided it was time to take a nap!"  
  
Krys slowed. "You know, that might just be it."  
  
"What, machina taking naps? What's next, coffee breaks? Or in their case, hot oil breaks?" Elsa chortled.  
  
"No, I mean them deciding one thing for all of them. Derrik, what sort of program setup are these mechs running on? Is each one autonomous, or..."  
  
Derrik blinked. "Krys, I think you're right! Now that I think about it, their circuits look to be hardwired into a loop relay mode, with a single mainframe controlling them all! Each one must feed signals back into the main system, which then analyzes the input and directs the machina how to react!"  
  
"Like a puppeteer controlling several puppets at once," Maya mused. "And if the main control fails..."  
  
"They'd all fail!" Elsa concluded.  
  
"All right, so let's go check out the mainframe!" said Vidina. "I'll bet you anything the information console at the Agency might have something to do with it; that manager was makin' a fuss last night about checking on it, ya?"  
  
"She mentioned it in passing, but yeah, you're right," Krys replied. "Let's go take a look." The five of them nodded and spun around, heading back towards the Agency. It didn't take very long to locate the terminal behind the Agency, and even less time to convince the manager to let them examine it. At first glance it appeared to be little more than an information kiosk, but the moment Derrik's fingers began to dance over it a myriad of function windows began to pop up on the screen. Vidina stared in awe as Derrik navigated through the menus, ignoring some and focusing on others. Krys and Elsa smiled as they watched their cousin work his magic. Maya leaned on her staff, gazing out at a random point in the sky.  
  
"Hmm. Doesn't look like the program is messed up," Derrik muttered at length. "South Highroad mechs still appear to be functional... but according to this, the North end control net isn't responding. Says the signal is offline."  
  
"Offline?" Vidina asked. "You mean the North end got cut out of the loop? How?"  
  
"If the program isn't botched, it's got to be a hardware problem," Derrik replied. "Better check the antenna relay." His eyes darted up and down the console podium, finally focusing on a thick cable that ran along the ground behind the Chocobo paddock to a small metal pillar hidden by a thick grouping of trees. It was a tight squeeze, and they wound up breaking a few branches on their way, but eventually all five of them had tracked the cable behind the paddock and were examining the four-foot-high cylindrical device. Several broken branches were scattered around the area and the earth was scraped and trampled, giving the suggestion a beast had been there recently. Krys pushed a loose limb away from the antenna, revealing a battered access panel and several bad gouges in the metal. "Bingo."  
  
Maya whistled. "That does not look good," she muttered. "Looks like a wild animal decided to use it as a punching bag."  
  
"Animal nothing, that has to have been a fiend," Elsa remarked, crouching low. "A dog or a wolf wouldn't have claws that could gouge holes that deep."  
  
"Can it be fixed?" Vidina asked as Derrik popped off the shredded panel. Derrik peered into the workings for a few long minutes before turning back and nodding.  
  
"They're gonna have to jury-rig a new panel to keep out rain, but it looks like all that happened is a couple wires got severed. Gimme a second to power it down and I can get started." The Al Bhed pulled his goggles down over his eyes and began to work the magic he'd learned from years of watching his dad repair mechs for other members of the Machine Faction.  
  
"Good to know the Agency won't have to replace all their equipment," Elsa said with a smile. Then she frowned. "It's still odd, though. Why would a fiend randomly attack a machina control unit? Wouldn't it head right for a Scout unit, or any machina that actually moves?"  
  
"Some fiends do go crazy sometimes, ya?" Vidina said with a shrug. "I remember Dad telling me about that time fiends started pouring out of the temple and some jerk from the Youth League wanted to burn it down; that must've been some craziness right there."  
  
"I know, my mom was there at the time too," said Maya. "Come to think of it, all our parents were. You don't suppose something like that could be happening again, do you?"  
  
Krys shook his head. "That's something we definitely don't need right now. One fiend going bonkers and beating this up, that I could deal with. But if more of these incidents start happening..." Just then something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Slowly he got out of his crouch and moved over to another section of treeline and shrubbery, towards a spot of tall grass where a glint of metal was shining in the morning light. He paused, putting a hand on his right holster as he leaned towards the sparkle. Pushing the grass aside, he suddenly froze, his eyes wide.  
  
"Bro, what is it?" Elsa called.  
  
Krys' eyes furrowed into a narrow glare as he reached down and picked up the source of the glint, a long curved knife with a black handle and silvered spiked hand guards on both sides. The blade itself looked like a fiend's tooth, but the edge bore several bad chips and cracks. Getting up, Krys marched over to the others and grabbed the access panel Derrik had thrown aside.  
  
"Found this over there," he muttered as he examined the gouges in the metal. He ran his finger along one gouge, then slid the blade of the knife into the hole. The fit was perfect.  
  
"Hey, that looks like a Thief Dagger," said Derrik as he stood up. "Mom has a pair like that, but with a red enamel on the blades..."  
  
"What does it mean?" Maya asked in a low voice. Krys slid the blade out of the gouge and looked at the others with a grim look on his face.  
  
"This was no fiend," he said. "This was sabotage." 


	4. Apology

[A/N: I apologize for the hiatus, but I've been out of town to attend a wedding and have also been suffering from chronic writer's block. I don't own the setting or established characters, just a few original characters that have been grating on my mind.  
  
The fact is, this particular chronicle is trickier for me than what I wrote before; with A New Threat to Spira I had some established characters and something I felt deserved an explanation; with this story everything is entirely new, and it's giving me a headache. I think I had more fun designing the next generation of Final Fantasy characters than with coming up with a reasonable plotline. The problem I have now is there are so many other ideas I have that have nothing to do with this story; I'm losing my own interest in it.  
  
As much as it pains me to say this, I have to put this story on hold for the time being. I have a few ideas bouncing around on where it might go from here, but I've got too many other things that I want to do more. Please forgive me for leaving the story at a cliffhanger, but I can't focus on it as much as I would prefer to. I'll be going back to work soon anyway, and my other ideas will require more of my time. I'm not finished writing by any means, but this story will have to wait. If any of you have suggestions or ideas, by all means email them to me; if I do pick up this story again it likely won't be as long as my previous work. I'll probably write some drabbles in the near future, possibly in other categories.  
  
In the meantime, I'll leave you with one tidbit of storyline:]

* * *

A cloaked figure paused, breathless, at the southern end of Mushroom Rock road. He pressed himself against the cliff wall, attempting to make himself invisible to the Council patrols just ahead. Breathing heavily, he glanced back to ensure he had not been followed. His hand fell to the scabbard at his side and his eyes grew large. His hands and eyes searched his belt frantically, but the dagger was not there. "Blast," he whispered to himself. "They'll be on the lookout for someone now." He gritted his teeth and shot a glance Northwards. "I can't believe I got careless like that... but no matter. I'll just have to work a bit faster.  
  
"Soon they'll all realize the folly of machina... and Spira can go back to the way it was."

* * *

[A/N: Interpret as you will. Again I apologize, but I'd rather write something that comes to me with ease than something I've been struggling with even while on vacation. Be on the lookout for other works from the Neon Ronin, 'cause I'll be back.] 


	5. Mission Time

[A/N: Well, I've sat around long enough and have decided to give it another go. I apologize for leaving the story in limbo for a short while, but I needed to rethink and try to get an idea where the New Blood is going. Future installments will most likely be updated depending on the number of reviews I get. I do not own FFX-2 or any other Square product. And now...]

Chapter 4: Mission Time

"I don't like this," Maya grumbled as she gripped her staff with both hands. The wind picked up, tossing some of her silver locks into her eyes.

"I don't think any of us likes this, Maya," Elsa replied as she adjusted the leather bag on her back; she had unscrewed her glaive into two sections and stowed them for the time being so as not to draw attention. "After all, nobody in their right mind would want to sabotage the Highroad security grid, and someone who would want to do that could be capable of a lot more."

"No, Ellie, I meant I don't like this," Maya shot back, gesturing sharply in front of them at the crowds that thronged the streets of Luca. Dozens of merchant wagons were out peddling their wares as children played tag in the market square. Numerous shoppers wound their way past the two young women, some casting long glances in their direction. Every once in a while, a small group of people would stare at one or the other for a moment, then back away chattering something, often with a tone of awe or amusement in their voices. "Why did we have to head into Luca on the busiest damn shopping day of the week?" Maya muttered, with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Sorry, I forgot about that," Elsa replied awkwardly. "C'mon, let's find a place to sit."

"Better not stray too far from the town square, ya?" Vidina piped up as he approached the two. "We don't want Krys or Derrik to get lost tryin' to find us." The girls nodded in agreement and the three of them made their way through the crowds to the curbside café. The tables inside were packed, but luckily there was still some space on a bench just outside, where the trio collapsed and stretched for a moment. Maya breathed a long sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry Ellie, I just can't deal with crowds this big," she eventually said in a subdued tone. "I know I should be over it by now, I'm practically an adult; I just don't know why I can't shake being uneasy like this."

Elsa sighed. "Sometimes these things stay with us longer than we want, Maya. It's not your fault; you didn't ask to be in the spotlight as a kid."

"But you and Krys have been in the spotlight a lot more than I have, and you deal with crowds just fine!" Maya replied. "How is it that you both managed to cope so easily and I can't?"

"Well..." Elsa began, but then stopped. This was something they'd talked about many times before, and each time Elsa was unable to answer. Was it something in the blood? The way they were raised, or where they were raised? She, her brother and Maya had all grown up under the world's eyes as the children of heroes, so what was the key difference? There had never been an easy answer as to why they could cope with crowds and Maya couldn't, and now she was broaching the subject again when they needed to be thinking of something else.

"Look, Maya," Vidina interjected, "sometimes these things just take time. Everyone's a little different, an' we've all gotta do things our own way, you know? I'm sure there's people out there that're worse off than you, people that don't talk to anybody but themselves because they never learned how to talk to anybody at all." He leaned back and rested his arms on the back of the bench. "I'm no expert, but if you ask me, I think you're gonna do all right in good time, ya? Just don't worry about it and keep your mind on something else."

Maya blinked, then smiled slightly. "I guess you're right, Red," she said. "And I know you're right about keeping my mind on something else; might as well focus on who busted the machina control console."

"Yeah, and speaking of which, where the hell are Derrik and Krys? They shouldn't have been gone this long!" Elsa grumbled, shifting her weapon satchel across her legs. "I mean, how many stores can there be that sell the same damn thing?"

"You'd be surprised," Maya answered. "I know that up in Bevelle you can't throw a rock in the commercial districts without hitting at least two weapon shops, and it's probably the same down here in Luca. Machina or no, people still need to protect themselves from fiends."

"Buncha paranoids," Vidina chortled, slapping his right fist into his left palm. "Swords can get knocked away or broken. You really want to come out of a fiend fight in one piece, you gotta know how to use your body as a weapon."

Maya raised an eyebrow at him. "I find it very satisfying to be able to eliminate a fiend without laying a finger on it, personally," she said cooly, flexing the fingers on her left hand and conjuring minute electrical arcs that danced along her forearm. Elsa smirked and leaned back, staring up at the sky. She overheard two kids talking excitedly about the daughter of Spira's Chancellor sitting with the daughter of the High Summoner, and chuckled as one tried to urge the other to go up and ask their autographs.

_Never fails,_ she thought. _Happens at least once whenever Krys and I come to Luca... and where in the Farplane is he anyway?_

_

* * *

_

"Well, that's three shops so far and we still don't have any leads on that dagger," Derrik muttered as he traipsed down a side alley behind Krys. "We don't have a weaponsmith's mark on the blade, none of the ones we've talked to have anything like that in stock, what're we gonna do now?"

Krys folded his arms and sighed. "There's still one or two more shops on the far side of Luca; we might as well check those out before we give up on this place."

"Oh, come on, cuz!" Derrik groaned, letting his arms dangle in frustration. "The more time we spend around here, the further away whoever busted the terminal is going to get from us! Why don't we just head back up the Highroad and check it out again, see if we can't find more clues?"

"Because by the time we do get back, someone will have swept the scene and we won't have any lead on where they may be or who they are," Krys replied, shifting the sword on his back. "Fact is, this dagger is the only thing we've got right now and the closest place that might sell weapons is here in Luca, so it's only logical that we start here."

"Fine, fine," Derrik relented. "I still don't get it; why would someone do something like that? Mom told me people had more or less accepted machines by the time I was born."

"Yeah... well, maybe some people have difficulty accepting change," said Krys. "My mom said the Church of New Yevon was the same way; a lot of people really didn't want to give up the traditions, even when they got exposed as a fraud all those years ago. They didn't undergo any real change until that discovery at the lowest levels of Bevelle, remember?"

Derrik nodded. "You mean when they discovered the records of worship in the time before Yevon, right? Those really old spheres concerning the legends of the Maker?"

"Yeah, the godlike being who supposedly gave life to all of Spira," said Krys. "New Yevon sure underwent some changes once they began to learn about the Edicts of the Maker- but like I said, there was some resistance to it even then. It might be someone still has a grudge against machina, too..."

Just then a low drawl spoke up from the shadows of a nearby doorway. "Tha's a nice lookin' sword you got there, mate. Very nice indeed, eh?" Krys and Derrik stopped and turned around as a scrawny man in blue baggy clothes and a gray vest emerged from the doorway, his arms swinging in a loose-limbed gait. He stared at the two vacantly and grinned, displaying several gaps where teeth were missing. "Too nice a blade for a lil' nipper like ye to be totin' around, if'n you ask me."

"Excuse me?" Krys asked, folding his arms and glaring at the man.

"I think you 'eard me quite well, mate. I'll be a-takin' that fancy sword o' yours for me own, if'n you'd be so kind," the man sneered, producing a battered crowd control club and swinging it petulantly. "Not like you gots anywhere to go, anyways." He snapped his fingers and Derrik blinked as seven figures, ranging from whip lean maniacs to fat toadies, began filing into the alley. Everyone of them was chuckling softly, carrying an assortment of weaponry that appeared to have been "appropriated" from hardware stores or the docks.

"You really have no clue, do you?" Krys muttered, putting a hand to his forehead.

"Ey, watch it mate, you're dealin' with The Great Maloney 'ere!" the scrawny man said. "And you might as well be layin' that blade down afore ye hurt yourself with it, along with all th' gil in yer pockets." He began to laugh, and the seven lackeys around him began flexing their arms and brandishing their scrounged weapons.

"Eight against two..." Derrik sighed. "Just doesn't seem fair to me."

Maloney spat on the ground. "We gots us a livin' to make. Nobody ever said life was fair, matey."

"You can say that again," said Krys with a sly glint in his eye.

* * *

"You think maybe they decided to hit the shops on the far side of town without tellin' us or something?" Vidina asked, leaning back with his hands behind his head.

"Eh, doubtful, but you never know with my brother," Elsa replied with a sigh. "I just wish there was something to do right now; we scouted all the shops on our checklist twice with no luck, and if they don't get back here with their results soon I think I'm gonna scream."

"Just give 'em a bit longer, Ellie," said Vidina. "Hey, wanna play a quick game of Sphere Break?"

Elsa rolled her eyes. "Forget it, Red, you're no challenge when it comes to that game."

"Ey! I'm gettin' better!"

"Better than a Hypello, maybe," Maya added with a grin. Vidina scowled as the two girls started laughing and dug his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. Just then a distant shriek pierced the air.

All three of them glanced upwards, their eyes darting across the horizon. "What was that?" Maya asked, gripping her staff.

"Sounds like it came from the stadium causeway..." Elsa muttered. Several more shouts began echoing through the streets, followed by a dozen or more residents scrambling into the town square; their faces were pale and their eyes wide. An inhuman screech suddenly rent the air, and there was no doubt in their minds what it was. "Looks like Luca picked a bad day to host some fiends," Elsa growled as she jumped off the bench, ripping open her weapon satchel as she did so.

"I thought fiends didn't get into Luca much!" said Vidina as he adjusted his gloves.

"No, they get in once in a while; Council guardsmen usually keep the incidents under control," said Maya in a low voice. "Normally I'd say we let the local authorities handle it- but personally, I need the practice," she added, twirling her staff in one hand.

"You can say that again; Night Hawks, let's move out!" Elsa replied gleefully as she slammed the two halves of her glaive together. "Maybe now we can get my slacker brother back here." Putting her fingers to her lips, she unleashed a loud, strident whistle that resonated across the square before nodding to her two companions and charging towards the causeway.

* * *

Maloney crashed backwards into some garbage cans, his face covered in bruises and blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. "H-hey, c'mon now, lads, g-give us a b-break now, eh? I didn' mean nothin' by it, it were all j-just a little joke! I was just f-funnin' with ya, nothing more!" he stammered, holding his hands in front of his face pathetically.

"I'm only going to say this once, you scum," Krys said as he stood over Maloney, cracking his knuckles. "One. Before you try and mug somebody, try and size up what they're capable of. Two. Don't try and mug anybody, you're just hurting yourself. Three, NOBODY tries to lay their hands on my father's sword without my approval."

"I- I gets it, mate. N-nobody touches yer pa's... w-wait, that's yer ol' man's s-sword you got there?" Maloney stammered. "That's n-not jus' some fancy replica of... of..." His eyes grew wider still as Krys drew Brotherhood off his back and held it less than an inch from his battered face. "Y-you mean... YOU'RE..."

"Guess he finally got the message, cuz," Derrik said with a smile as he stood up from the collapsed bodies of some of Maloney's lackeys. "Talk about second-rate, these guys couldn't even stand up to one lousy sleep gas grenade."

"And the ones who did, had glass jaws," Krys said, flipping Brotherhood back into its sheath. "Now, Maloney, you and I are going to have a talk."

"P-please, young master, I d-didn' know it were you! I swear, I wouldn' never think of attackin' the heir of Spira's saviors! I promise you, I didn' know who you was when I saw ye!!"

"I'm sure you didn't," said Krys with an amused look on his face. "Look, I'm having a bit of a bad day right now, and the city watch would be very grateful if I turned you and your boys in right now." Maloney squirmed and backed up against the wall, sweat running down his temples. "However, I'm also in need of some information and it just might be that you could help me in this department. That's a big maybe though, so let's get down to business." With a quick motion, Krys produced the dagger, holding it two inches from Maloney's face, who audibly gulped and whose eyes started to bulge out of their sockets.

"We found this on the Mi'ihen Highroad, apparently used to render a bunch of the patrol machina useless and vulnerable to fiend attacks," Krys said in a low voice with one hand on Maloney's vest lapel. "I'll wager anything the guy who did it may be capable of doing much more, but we don't know who it might be or where he is. If you know someone who likes this sort of dagger and tell me where he is, I might go easy on you."

Derrik crossed his arms and sighed. "Krys, this is stupid. The moron probably can't tell a dagger from a butter knife; we'll have better luck at one of the stores."

"W-wait a second there, m-mates," Maloney stammered. "I... I think I do knows somebody who fancies that sort of blade, s-shifty lookin' bloke, always wears a hooded cape... but he's jus' a small-timer, like me! Saw him down at the docks about a week ago, drunk as a fish, babblin' his bleedin' head off..."

Krys' eyes narrowed. "His name?"

"Dunno, lad! He's a lone wolf, keeps to hisself, never tells nobody his name!"

Derrik stepped closer. "Was he babbling anything that sounded anti-machina or that suggested sabotage?"

"Naw, nothing o' that sort! Jus' some nonsense about how the world needs to return to its roots, but he always says rubbish like that; bleedin' regressionist if you ask me..."

"Where is he now?"

A small smile crossed Maloney's lips. "Well, now that I couldn't say, lads. See, me memory acts up from time to time, and I need this... rather expensive medicine to help cure it, and seeing as how I gots no gil at the moment..."

Derrik glared at him. "I'd be perfectly happy to mix you up a memory medication and administer it to you in suppository form; how's about that?" Maloney's eyes grew wide and a bead of sweat ran down his temple as he stammered, "H-honestly mate, I don't really know; he s-said he was headin' up North to 'make amends' and that's all I got out of him; he was flippin' sloshed that day, an' I ain't seen him since!!!"

Just then a whistle reverberated down the alleyways, prompting Krys' head to jerk upward. "Sounds like sis wants us back," he muttered, dropping Maloney and whipping his guns out of their holsters. "Bet you there's fiend trouble out there; she wouldn't have whistled otherwise."

"We've got what we can here; let's go kick some butt!" Derrik replied, snapping his bracer blades into position. The two darted towards the end of the alley, pausing long enough for Derrik to turn back and cast a disparaging glance at the still-rattled Maloney.

"Talk about pathetic; that guy's worse than Uncle Brother," he muttered with a smirk before rejoining Krys and sprinting towards the town square.

[A/N: There may be a while until my next update; many things are calling my attention and I have one or two other stories I am working on as well. As always, reviews are welcome and if you are confused by this story, I suggest you read (or even re-read) A New Threat To Spira. End of shameless plug. I apologize again for the delay- and any future delays- but hey, life happens.]


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